Spotify-Barça deal on Camp Nou naming rights

Article posted by Coliseum, February 1^st, 2022

Image: FC Barcelona

Swedish streaming giant Spotify is on the verge of sealing a deal to become the Spanish professional football club FC Barcelona’s (Spain) major sponsor.

The ‘as’ stated that the two parties are in talks for the music service to feature on Barça’s shirts from next season in place of Japanese retail corporation Rakuten. As part of the deal, the Barça’s home – Camp Nou – will be renamed ‘Camp Nou Spotify’. Details of the duration of the agreement are as yet unknown, but Barça stand to pocket between €60m and €65m per year for the deal.

Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on April 23^rd, 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is the world’s largest music streaming service provider, with over 381 million monthly active users, including 172 million paying subscribers, as of September 2021.

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Futbol Club Barcelona, commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça, is a Spanish professional football club based in Barcelona (Spain), which competes in LaLiga, the top flight of Spanish football.

The 99,354-capacity Camp Nou is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It opened in 1957 and has been the home stadium of FC Barcelona since its completion.

Arsenal deal comes unstuck

The ‘as’ further stated that negotiations between Barça and Spotify began in October 2021 after the Swedish firm failed to reach an agreement with the Premier League club Arsenal F.C. (UK). Daniel Ek, the founder and owner of Spotify, is an avowed ‘Gunners’ fan. Barça gave importance to the fact that Spotify is a globally recognized brand and this worked to the interest of the latter.

Barcelona had also fielded offers from the Chinese technology and entertainment firm Tencent, as well as cryptocurrency companies Vegan and Polkadot after Rakuten elected not to extend its deal with the club beyond June 30^th, partly as a result of Argentine footballer Lionel Messi leaving Barça for the Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain F.C. (PSG) (France).

Barça initially wanted to sell naming rights for Camp Nou for 15 years, but Spotify preferred to arrange a short-term deal for the company name to adorn the stadium. The deal is expected to add around 800 million users to Barça’s social media accounts.

Debt-ridden Barça

The ‘Sport Bild’ stated that the current shirt sponsor Rakuten reportedly pays 55 million euros per season per year.

For a long time, Barça had resisted any jersey and stadium deals. But, for the deep in debt LaLiga club (debt burden of over 1.35 billion euros), such deals have presently come as manna from heaven.

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